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Veteran U.S. Special Operations commanders say the Sahel, the dust-blown African region just south of the Sahara Desert, has been ceded to Islamic State and Al Qaeda affiliates as a consequence of the drawdown of Green Berets from the region during the Donald Trump administration. But President Joe Biden, they say, has not come up with a strategy to counter the growing Islamist insurrections that threaten nations across the continent.

“The Sahel is lost,” retired Maj. Gen. Marcus Hicks, a former commander of Special Forces in Africa, tells SpyTalk. “Ever since 2019, the security situation in the Sahel countries—Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Burkina Faso, northern Cameroon—has been in free fall, and it’s continuing to deteriorate.”

The Biden administration recently slapped sanctions on Islamic State branches in central Africa, and the Pentagon has dispatched a dozen Green Berets to Mozambique, but critics say such measures are no match for the growing strength of Islamist militants across …